Campanacci

As Printed on a Score

Labels cowbells (Campanacci) on a single line, or on a staff with written pitches when tuned cowbells are meant. When herd bells are to be shaken offstage or irregularly, the score says so in words.

How Composers Use It

Two different sounds share the name: alpine herd bells with clappers, which Mahler has shaken gently and irregularly in his Sixth and Seventh Symphonies as a sound of distant pastures, and the clapperless cowbell struck with a stick, common in Latin American percussion. Say which you want; for herd bells, describe the effect or give a free rhythm rather than notating exact strokes.

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